The Shadow Behind You
by Dragontech 4.9
Summary: Sequel to The Power of Darkness. It has been one year since Escora's capture and now on his planet he has escaped and plans to return to the dragon realms. In Spyro's world, a new dragon has appeared and he knows a lot about Escora and Spyro.
1. Escape

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Spyro video game series or any characters, places, dialogues, or abilities that might have appeared or been named in it.**

Today marked the one year anniversary that Escora had been captured from the Dragon Realms. After he arrived he had to wait in solitude for the method of execution to be decided. The drakeons were very serious when it came to punishment for crime. Today they had finally decided and had everything prepared. It was to be very public.

Two guards were walking down the halls of the solitary confinement area and their instructions were to simply pick up Escora and transfer him to another execution cell. They soon arrived at their destination. They each took out what looked like knife blades that had writing on them. Simultaneously they inserted their respective "keys" into locks on either side of the metal door. It immediately opened for them and they looked at the prisoner.

"Time for my execution is it?" Escora asked from his lying down position. Even after a year, he still looked like a wreck. His left leg was still missing, his right shoulder was pretty much dead and useless, his left wing had fallen off at some point, his left eye was still gouged out, and he was still covered in massive scars and gnashes. Part of his punishment was that he had to go through the pain and never receive medical treatment. For Escora, it was agony.

They picked him up and had to carry him to an armored vehicle and then they drove off. Escora was chained up in the back. He was still too weak to break the chains and he knew this but still struggled anyway. After several minutes the car stopped.

"We couldn't be there already?" Escora thought out loud. They weren't supposed to get to his new cell for several hours. Something else had forced them to stop. Escora leaned his right ear to the wall of the back trailer. He was able to make out at least three voices if not more. He knew that there were only two people driving him over so who was the new person? Seconds later he heard weapons fire and he jerked back as the wall of the trailer was hit and several large dents were made. It was followed by even more voices and weapons fire. He also heard the driver get back in and they speeded off. Several swerves were made to dodge what ever was out there. Escora simply tumbled in the back and then he heard an explosion to the left of the vehicle. They vehicle leaned to the right but only just escaped the tipping point. It kept gunning forward and then another explosion was heard in the front of the vehicle. It drifted at a diaganol angle and then a rocket was heard and it detonated just behind the vehicle and all of this combined sent the car spiraling through the air and rolling several hundred yards before finally coming to a stop on it's side.

All was quiet for a few moment before the back door was starting to get bashed in. It soon broke open and five other drakeons looked inside at the recently battered Escora.

"Escora, we are here to rescue you! Follow us." One of them said. It wasn't like Escora had much of a choice. He was soon carried off to some unknown location. Everyone would soon remember this day as the day that Escora was freed.


	2. What doesn't kill you

_Back in the Dragon realms…_

It was the middle of the night and it was pitch black out. The cold slowly crept into the dragon temple and then slowly made its way into Spyro's room. He was sprawled out on the floor lost in a dream. He seemed almost totally at rest but in his head something completely different was happening.

_Convexity was falling apart. The portal was sucking in every last bit of matter and Spyro was to be caught in the middle of it. It was already too late to rescue Cynder so Spyro just flew away. Once he got to the edge of the platform something stopped him. It was as if something had grabbed him and forced him to stay on the platform. He looked back but nothing was there but the portal which was steadily growing more unstable by the second. He looked back on it a second time and this time he saw a hand reach out of the portal._

"_The Dark Master!" Spyro screamed into the air. Now an entire arm was visible. Something about this arm seemed familiar though. As more seconds passed he could clearly see the face of the creature but it was covered in a black fire that made it unidentifiable. The whole creature now climbed out. He wasn't hindered at all by the suction of the portal and he only walked slowly towards Spyro._

"_Spyro…" the entity said. Spyro only looked in terror and tried to get away but now he seemed to be pulled toward the entity itself._

"_Spyro…" it repeated. It was within arms distance. It grabbed Spyro by the neck and lifted him to eye level with the entity. Spyro could now make out glowing red eyes. Spyro then looked down and saw that his entire body was being engulfed in black flames. They slowly crawled up his body and had reached his neck. They started to lick his head. He felt numb all over and could only feel the intense fear within him._

"_Spyro… I will find you…" the entity finished. The flames completely engulfed Spyro and he started falling down into a black abyss._

Spyro's eyes shot open and his head jerked up. A hand stopped him and gently pushed it back to the ground. Spyro was sweating intensely and his heart rate was soaring. He looked to his left and saw Cynder right next to him. Slowly everything came back to him. He had been having these nightmares for two weeks strait and everyone was worried. Cynder and the other guardians took turns watching over him at night. Given his destructive potential, they didn't want someone to be hurt if he ever over reacted to one of these dreams.

"The nightmare again?" Cynder questioned. Spyro only nodded. He had been having this same dream for several days now. He explained it once but it was a graphic description enough that no one needed to hear it twice. Spyro slowly settled on the ground again and closed his eyes. He was asleep again in just a few minutes.

_Elsewhere…_

Winds started to blow in a tornado like pattern. The entire area of forest started to glow orange as several plants caught fire. There wasn't any ignition source. The entire area was just steadily getting hotter and soon the air itself seemed to be burning. Soon, the flames began to move through the air and they condensed to form a sphere of pure heat a few feet above the ground. It got smaller and hotter until it was just a few feet across and the fire turned white hot. The fires that had been made around it got more out of control and then the sphere seemed to explode out releasing a massive shockwave, sending fire balls hurtling through the air for hundreds of feet. At the same time, the shockwave also put out any secondary fires and all that was left was a burnt patch of forest and smoke so dense, you couldn't even see a foot in front of yourself. The smoke slowly rose into the air and the bottom became clearer. Soon something could be seen in the middle of all this.

It was a dragon. About the same age as Spyro and Cynder but he was a little larger. He had bright, almost neon green scales and dark gray under-scales. The tip of his tail was a bright green blade that almost looked like a flame frozen in place. His eyes were a glowing yellow and his wings were larger than usual. He looked around at the bit of destruction that he caused and then he flew off to where, he didn't quite know.

_On the drakeon home planet…_

Escora was taken to another vehicle and was then driven off to a secret hideout in the middle of nowhere. He was put on a stretcher like device and was rolled inside. Escora was barely holding on to consciousness and everything around him just looked like a bright blur. He heard pieces of mechanical equipment humming all around him. He was then taken into a rather large room. The last thing he remembered was that a surgeon injected him with some type of needle and then everything slipped into total blackness with nothing but faint sounds still audible.

The operation was a very long one and the drug used to put him asleep was very powerful and very risky. It had to keep him knocked out for days on end. When Escora woke up he found that he was alone. He was still very tired and weak. He was only able to lift his head long enough to see that something about him was different. He was too sleepy to tell what but his body just didn't feel right. He was able to stay awake long enough to see more doctors walking into the room. They were slightly surprised that he had woken up so early in the procedure. They were talking about something but Escora couldn't make it out. His head collapsed on the table he was on yet again.

"Still tired Escora?" one of the doctors asked. They didn't expect an answer. One of the doctors reached for a cord on the side of the room and he put it next to Escora's head. Escora felt a slight push in the right side of his head and suddenly he felt as if he was full of energy. The first real emotion that came to him was anger. Anger over Spyro. He looked over at one of the doctors and jumped off of the table. His new self was now clearly visible. He had a mechanical eye that also had thermal vision and could zoom in on targets. His left arm was fully mechanical and it had a wrist mounted laser gun, his missing wing had been replaced by a mechanical one, his right leg was also replaced, and his right wrist had a retractable blade in it. He felt power and he grabbed one of the doctors by the head and he crushed his skull with his enhanced mechanical hand. He used his wrist blade and cut deeply into the second doctor and finally shot the third doctor and then stabbed him and pinned him to the wall. Once all three were dead, the door to the room opened and a tall drakeon walked through, slowly clapping his hands.

"Bravo. Bravo Escora. You were lucky that those weren't actual personel or you would've been very sorry. Anyway, what do you think of your new self?" the mysterious drakeon questioned. Escora looked at his new enhancements. And he smiled the best he could.

"I like it." He stated plainly. The other drakeon smiled as well.

"Excellent."


	3. Tough Knowledge

The morning sun rose over the far off mountains. Light poured into the temple grounds and several small insects flew off at the first sign of light. Multiple birds chirped at the morning sun and they also flew off. Soon, it made its way toward the windows and cracks of the temple. The light flooded over into the room where Spyro was painfully sleeping. He woke at the first sign of light and quickly rose his head up. He looked around at the room he was in. He found that Cynder had gotten too tired to keep watch over him and she had collapsed on the ground. Spyro didn't give it any attention though. He proceeded to walk out the door and into the many hallways of the temple and he slowly found his way to the small overhanging platform.

He took in the vast environment that lay before him trying to forget everything about last night and the nightmares that came with it. He had started doing this everyday and it was helping slightly but he felt that he just couldn't ignore these dreams. He had so many questions regarding them and he knew that no one would be able to answer them. Why were they happening all of a sudden? Who was the dark figure in them? All of these thoughts were interrupted when a voice came from the outside.

"Hey Spyro! How have you been?" It was Sparx. He did this every day to annoy Spyro. He wasn't expecting an answer and he already knew that the answer would always be "bad" or something along those lines.

"Sparx, not now. Not now of all times." Spyro replied. Sparx's usually happy and care free mood worsened as he quickly realized that something about the dream last night was different.

"Hey man, sorry. Um, Ignitus wants you to see him early for the training today." Sparx said. Spyro's expression shifted.

"Why?" was all he was able to think of. Sparx just shook his head to convey that he didn't know why. Spyro just shrugged it off and headed up the ramp and toward the training room.

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Escora had followed the drakeon out of the operating room and into a complex set of hallways. Escora stayed close behind the mysterious drakeon but he never passed him.

"Well," Escora said. The other drakeon only looked over his shoulder to see what Escora had to say.

"Why?" Escora finished. The other drakeon only looked a little confused at the strange question.

"Why what?" He asked in returned. Escora's biological eye narrowed slightly in anger.

"You know. Why take me in like this? Why rescue me from that vehicle? Why repair me with this- this metal?!" Escora finally yelled out. The other drakeon wasn't stirred by the short outburst.

"It's simple really. I'm certain you remember just what kind of damage you did when you were here last. Even after all this time, it is a tragedy to this day. Your name instills fear into the very hearts of the guards of the grand palace. Your malice makes even the greatest of their warriors tremble. That is why we have taken you Escora." By the time he reached this part of his speech, the two of them had reached a large door. It opened quickly and the pair soon found themselves in a very large room that was an arena and thousands of drakeons were seated far away from the main ring.

"We want you to be in our army." The other drakeon finished. Escora did not show any happiness at this proposition. He only glared at all the drakeons in the stands.

"I don't just serve in any amount of armed forces. I lead it!" He yelled at the drakeon next to him.

"That is why I have brought you here Escora. You are here to do battle with our current leader. Whoever wins will be followed by everyone here." The drakeon with Escora answered. This made Escora show a slight smile.

"It will be a short fight." He said with a twisted and evil tone to his voice. The other drakeon smiled as Escora walked into the arena.

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Spyro walked into the training room. He marveled at the gigantic statue that always stood in the tall room. Something about it was mesmerizing and Spyro was fascinated by it every time he came in here. He say Ignitus waiting just on the other side of the room. The ground shook as he somehow got the statue to lower into the ground. It slowly lowered and at the same time it slowly revolved to make one complete circle by the time it was fully underground. The large hole in the ground was soon filled by large pieces of stone that moved in to cover the statue. Spyro was now able to completely see Ignitus.

"Hello Ignitus. Sparx told me that you wanted me to come early?" Spyro asked. Ignitus sighed and lowered his head a little but raised it soon after in order to give his answer.

"Spyro, these dreams of yours are apparently becoming more and more intense as time passes by. I'm not sure of the origin of these nightmares that you have been having but I am almost certain that it can't be good. All of the guardians are becoming concerned about this. I fear it may be the dark masters doing." Ignitus said. Spyro had a worried look on his face.

"So, what am I supposed to do about it?" Spyro asked in worried tone.

"Spyro, the only thing that we can do right now is to prepare you for whatever may happen next. You have to be ready for anything. I fear that you may need to leave the temple. If this really is the Dark Master behind these attacks on your mind, I think that the temple is too obvious of a location for you to be hiding in." Ignitus answered.

"Why? Why wouldn't this temple be the best place for me to stay? You are here and all of the other guardians are here too!" Spyro yelled. Ignitus was starting to provide him with more questions than answers.

"I was afraid you were going to say that. I think it is best that you not dwell on it, and you try to sort your head out. I believe that I can't help you much longer." Ignitus said trying to maintain eye contact with Spyro.

Spyro looked away from Ignitus. This whole meeting wasn't helping him. He started to get angry and began to walk out of the room.

"Spyro! I know that it is a very difficult time for you but you have to listen to me!" Ignitus yelled while he took a step toward Spyro. Spyro turned around to protest but his eyes widened in shock as he saw Escora standing right behind Ignitus. He felt his limbs go numb and he collapsed on the ground from shock.

"Spyro!" Ignitus cried out. He rushed over to help him. He looked back to see what Spyro was looking at but there was nothing there.


End file.
